This could have been predicted from the lack of FireWire support in the recent iPods but this move, if true, will not please the countless Mac owners with FireWire peripherals. Especially when FireWire is vastly superior to USB.

PowerPage have been terribly unreliable in the past and I hope this is incorrect but just thought I'd raise it for discussion.

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I just don't see this happening. Every dv Camera on the market is equipped with Firewire, and but a few with USB 2 (which doesn't even work very well for video). If they stop including Firewire altogether on any Mac, they may as well stop including iMovie and iDVD with that Mac as well, because it'll be worthless if you can't plug in your camera. Not to mention it would eliminate any acceptable form of external storage solutions. USB 2 does not cut it for Video editing.

Removing Firewire 400 to make way for Firewire 800? Absolutely. Removing Firewire completely when it's necessary for using two of the five iLIfe applications? No way.

Yeah, I can see FW 400 being switched to FW 800 on the iBook and the Powerbook changing to FW 800 exclusively. There are a lot of reasons that makes sense, but a lot of people will still be pissed that they need adapters to get their 12-pin FW 400 plugs to work in a FW 800 port.

If an adapter is included, then I see this as a positive move. IMO, FW800 has had a hard time getting off the ground. Maybe this is because FW400 is fast enough for most people, but it seems cost prohibitive (not to mention space efficiencies) to keep including FW400 & 800 ports.

However, I have to agree DV cameras but also external hard drives - which can be used for start-up all need FireWire. To make FireWire 800 take off all new computers need it - Apple should have done this years ago. Bluetooth 2 will take off soon because every Apple computer now supports it.

I think he just means external SATA, which is more a feature of SATA itself (as it lets you hot-plug devices). That would probably be very useful as long as the cabling distance was sufficient (Firewire can be strung over relatively long distances).

The story originated on PowerPage, so that virtually guarantees that it's false. They're rarely ever right.

Wikipedia on eSATA. It's already there and some setups use it; Apple just needs to provide the ports. I really don't think cable distance is a relevant concern for external hard drive setups. If you want long cables, maybe you're really better off with a SAN or NAS solution; you can't really combine long cables and high performance.

Half of the Digital Hub philosophy becomes irrelevant without Firewire.

This isn't going to happen.

Dropping FW support for the iPod made sense (though I regret it). Most people connected via USB2 which is more than satisfactory for the iPod's needs. It reduces costs for Apple without a major drop in performance.

However, this is in no way indicative of a fall off in support of FW all together. The iPod and laptops are simply not comparable.

This could have been predicted from the lack of FireWire support in the recent iPods but this move, if true, will not please the countless Mac owners with FireWire peripherals. Especially when FireWire is vastly superior to USB.

PowerPage have been terribly unreliable in the past and I hope this is incorrect but just thought I'd raise it for discussion.

Funny I thought that this was one area ripe for Apple and Intel to work together. I thought for sure that Intel would be interested in all versions of FireWire. Perhaps it is not to be, pitty though it is an area where Apple could help Intel.

Seems kind of odd to me. Apple right up to now have been packing their machines with features even if not everybody will use them. Removing firewire from a machine removes a lot of functionality - no video editing and no firewire drives (both optical and magnetic).

Removing firewire can only be for two reasons. Cost cutting because Apple are now trying undercut the competition; To force more people to buy Powerbooks. And since when did Apple become a manufacturer of budget priced goods?

But before you buy a machine you don't always know what you'll do with it. When you bought an iBook you didn't see yourself video editing. A few months after purchase things can change and suddenly you can't do with that machine which historically you could have.

Adding firewire to a machine can only cost Apple a few dollars. In the long term, it could lose Apple more money. I mean what is the point of upgrading iLife, if you can only make use of iPhoto? Next to no reason. It would be better for Apple to include firewire as it gives them the possibility of making more money in the future.

But if Apple are repositioning their products and cut the price of the iBook by a few hundred dollars and the cheapest intel PowerBook costs roughly the same price as a current 12" iBook then perhaps you can kind of see the reasoning behind the lack of firewire on the iBook. But in the end, Apple is reducing the level of creative possibility with their machines. And that can only be a bad thing.

But if Apple are repositioning their products and cut the price of the iBook by a few hundred dollars and the cheapest intel PowerBook costs roughly the same price as a current 12" iBook then perhaps you can kind of see the reasoning behind the lack of firewire on the iBook. But in the end, Apple is reducing the level of creative possibility with their machines. And that can only be a bad thing.

Agreed, a very bad thing. News flash: "Apple to make crap laptops." Here's to the future.

Seems kind of odd to me. Apple right up to now have been packing their machines with features even if not everybody will use them. Removing firewire from a machine removes a lot of functionality - no video editing and no firewire drives (both optical and magnetic).

They did it once before, with the original iMac. They dropped SCSI in favor of USB 1.1, and consequently there was no high-speed bus of any sort, meaning that you couldn't connect a CD-RW drive or external hard drive at all if you wanted anything resembling acceptable speed or reliability. \

Hopefully Apple won't do that again, though. eSATA will be really awesome in the future, but until it becomes more entrenched, FireWire is the best external high-speed bus that we have, and it's currently essential for video editing.